Asustek Computer Inc’s (華碩) PC shipments increased 8.6 percent year-on-year to 4.49 million units in the second quarter, driven by US tariff-related inventory buildup and desktop system upgrades, market researcher Gartner Inc said in a report on Monday.
The company secured a 7.1 percent share of the global market in the second quarter, ranking fifth place ahead of Acer Inc (宏碁), but trailing behind Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), HP Inc, Dell Technologies Inc and Apple Inc, Gartner said.
Among the top five, only Dell saw a decline in shipments in the second quarter, down 3 percent year-on-year to 9.83 million units, the researcher said.
Photo: I-Hwa Cheng, AFP
Overall, global PC shipments rose 4.43 percent to 63.23 million units in the second quarter, from 60.54 million units a year earlier, it said.
The figure also grew 7.26 percent from the previous quarter.
The growth in global PC shipments in the second quarter was mostly driven by enterprise demand due to the upcoming end of service for Microsoft Corp’s Windows 10 operating system and a post-COVID-19 upgrade cycle, Gartner said.
In contrast, consumer refreshes slowed in the quarter, and many organizations chose to upgrade existing devices rather than purchase new ones with Windows 11, it said.
By region, shipments to North America dipped 0.5 percent year-on-year, while those to the Asia-Pacific market remained flat. Shipments to Europe, the Middle East and Africa rose 5.3 percent, reflecting stronger-than-usual seasonal demand.
Global PC shipments in the second half are likely to remain flat, as vendors have front-loaded inventory to meet demand, potentially leading to excess stock by the end of this year, Gartner research principal Rishi Padhi said in a statement.
Full-year shipments are expected to grow 2.4 percent this year from last year, driven by front-loaded inventory in the US in the first half and replacement demand stemming from the Windows 11 upgrade cycle, Gartner said.
Asustek in May said it began stockpiling PC and notebook inventory equivalent to three to six months of supply in the fourth quarter of last year.
Acer earlier this month said it had not front-loaded inventory for the US market in response to potential high US tariffs, with its inventory levels remaining normal at six to eight weeks.
Last week, International Data Corp (IDC) reported a slowdown in US PC demand in the second quarter due to tariff-related uncertainty, adding that PC vendors’ US sales could slow this quarter amid inventory buildup.
“Price increases will likely be dispersed over time and geography depending on vendor strategy, which can potentially lead to some attractive promotions as a way to clear inventory backups,” IDC worldwide device tracker group vice president Ryan Reith said in a statement.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
RSS